| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Personal Record by Joseph Conrad: wet fog?"
He was not to be propitiated by a show of interest in his health.
His answer was a sinister "No fear," as much as to say that even
that way of escape from inclement fortune was closed to him.
"I just came down . . ." he mumbled after a while.
"Well, then, now you're here I will land that pony for you at
once, and you can lead him home. I really don't want him on
deck. He's in the way."
Almayer seemed doubtful. I insisted:
"Why, I will just swing him out and land him on the wharf right
in front of you. I'd much rather do it before the hatches are
A Personal Record |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Under the Red Robe by Stanley Weyman: of the orange sachet; which, without having any particular design
in my mind, I had taken care to bring with me. I had torn the
sachet into four pieces--four corners. As I played mechanically
with them, one of my fingers fitted into one, as into a glove; a
second finger into another. And the plan came.
Before I could move in it, however, I had to wait until we
stopped to bait the flagging horses, which we did about noon at
the head of the valley. Then, pretending to drink from the
stream, I managed to secure unseen a handful of pebbles, slipping
them into the same pocket with the morsels of stuff. On getting
to horse again, I carefully fitted a pebble, not too tightly,
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Pool of Blood in the Pastor's Study by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: with me."
"Indeed. Then Cardillac knew the inside of the rectory?"
"Yes. The pastor used to lend him books and let him choose them
himself from the library shelves. The people in the village are
very kind to my poor patients here. I have long since had the
habit of taking some of the quieter ones with me down into the
village and letting the people become acquainted with them. It is
good for both parties. It gives the patients some little diversion,
and it takes away the worst of the senseless fear these peasants
had at first of the asylum and its inmates. Cardillac in particular
is always welcome when he comes, for he brings the children all
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from The Tin Woodman of Oz by L. Frank Baum: "She might transform the door into an archway,"
suggested the little Brown Bear.
"That would be easy for her," said the Tin Owl; "but
I'm glad she was too angry to think of that before we
got out of her Valley."
"Well, we have escaped the big woman, to be sure,"
remarked the Green Monkey, "but we still wear the
awful forms the cruel yookoohoo gave us. How are we
going to get rid of these shapes, and become ourselves
again?"
None could answer that question. They sat around the
The Tin Woodman of Oz |
